


Alive

by sorryallonsy



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-16
Updated: 2014-09-16
Packaged: 2018-02-17 15:28:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2314427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorryallonsy/pseuds/sorryallonsy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kili's first night in Erebor is spent cold and alone. Or is it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alive

**Author's Note:**

> For the lovely thorin-oakensass! Hope you like it! :)

Their first night in Erebor was... not what Kili had expected, to say the least. Not that he really knew what to expect, exactly, but it wasn’t this. The stories Uncle Thorin and ‘Amad always told of the mountain made it sound warm and comfortable and alive. But this? The mountain was freezing, and Kili could swear he heard someone talking even though everyone else in the company was already asleep. 

The worst part though, was his uncle. Ever since the lonely mountain first came in their sight, Thorin seemed to be not himself. At least, not all the time. Kili knew that there was a madness that ran in line of Durin; it was his great grandfather’s madness that drew Smaug to Erebor in the first place. Still, it was one thing to hear about a relative he’d never met going crazy, and it was another thing entirely to actually see it happening. Already this madness had caused so much pain and suffering. Kili could only pray to Mahal that his uncle’s madness would soon pass.

Realizing that sleep would not come to him anytime soon this night, Kili got up from his bed roll and set off explore what would now become his home. Perhaps he would be able to find a glimmer of the Erebor of old that his ‘Amad had loved so much.

Not wanting to venture too far away from the rest of the company, Kili stuck to just the rooms nearby. ‘The royal wing’, Master Balin had called this area. Since this area called for privacy that was unnecessary in the public corridors, the hallways were much more narrow and confined. But they also didn’t smell as strongly of dragon here, seeing as Smaug wouldn’t have been able to fit through here, so Kili found the tradeoff of less room to move about in worth it to be able to actually breathe again. 

He took a deep breath now, eager to breathe in the air of Erebor itself, not just the stench of dragon droppings that everywhere else smelled of. The pure scent of minerals hit him like a shock to his heart, and for the first time in a very long time he truly felt alive again. The happy stories of Erebor he’d always heard didn’t seem so impossible anymore.

Thinking back to the brief tour that Master Balin had given earlier, Kili looked around for the room that would one day be his. Second right from the end, then take the first left. Or was it another right? Mahal, these halls were confusing. So very different from the simple two bedroom house they had back in Ered Luin. He took another deep breath, letting the sweet mountain air fill his mind and help him reconnect with the stone. He was a dwarf. A dwarf of Erebor. And Erebor was his home now. 

Home... Kili let the word swirl around his thoughts, no longer paying as much attention to where he was walking. Somehow he ended up in front of a large door, a gold plaque covered in dust on the front. He wiped the dust off with his sleeve, but still had to squint his eyes to try to see what its inscription said. A dwarf of Erebor he may be, but his eyesight was still that of someone used to life above ground, not under it. 

“Frerin,” Kili read aloud, voice barely above a whisper. He turned to leave, not wanting to disturb the room his late uncle had left behind, but there was a little voice in the back of his mind pushing him to go in. He never was one to turn that voice down – much to his elders’ dismay – so he opened the door as carefully as he could, just to look. Even after all these years without use and gathering dust, the door opened easily, a credit to the brilliant minds of dwarves long before him. Kili stepped into the room slowly, taking everything in as best he could in the low light. He still was in awe of the ingenuity behind using crystals and mithril mirrors to reflect light down into rooms from a skylight way up above. 

Kili was surprised to see that the wealth of Erebor wasn’t reflected in the room here. If he didn’t know that this was the room of a prince, he would have thought it was just a commoner’s room. He walked around the room slowly, taking in what there was to see. The room was spacious, but besides the basic furnishings, there really wasn’t much in the way of personalization. 

The desk against the wall had a few stray papers, some knives, and a heavy layer of dust upon it. Kili moved to take a closer look at the carvings on the knife handles, when he heard footsteps coming from the hallway. He stepped out of the room, calling out to whoever was there in case someone was looking for him, but heard no response. 

Not wanting to keep whoever was there waiting for long, he went back to just look at the knives really quick. Kili went back to the desk, but paused. There, on the desk, was not the knives and papers he was expecting to see, but instead a bundle of arrows, neatly tied with a dark blue and light brown braided ribbon. Durin blue, Kili noted to himself. And light brown – that was his uncle Frerin’s colour. Kili ran his fingers across the wood of the arrows, appreciating the beautifully engraved runes for raven, family, and health that were intertwined along the shafts. He picked them up, and as he did a warm breeze blew through the room, wrapping around his shoulders, and caressing his cheeks. He may never have met his Uncle Frerin face to face, but he had no doubt that his uncle knew him and was looking out for him even now.

“Gaubdûkhimâ gagin yâkùlib Mahal,” Kili’s voice rang out loudly, and the wind spun into a cyclone in the middle of the room, stirring up a mini dust cloud, before stilling again. Kili smiled, nodded to himself, then left to return to the company. Perhaps life in Erebor really would be as wonderfully alive as he’d always heard told.

**Author's Note:**

> Translation: 
> 
> Gaubdûkhimâ gagin yâkùlib Mahal - May we meet again with the grace of Mahal


End file.
